Women from
hula to HURTTHE thrust of today's column is that women are a diverse lot. It's heartwarming, for example, to find that a young woman as young and talented as Joy Haunani Pascua has been sharing her love of hula for nearly 20 years. It began when her mother, Marsha, introduced the dance to her when she was 4-1/2 years old. Her talent progressed under teachers, from Alexa Vaught and Nina Maxwell to Keali'i Reichel and Uluwehi Guerrero. She won the 1991 Hula O Na Keiki 'Opio Wahine contest at 16 and has gone on to be a professional dancer and has performed at the Waikiki Shell and Carnegie Hall. She's currently encouraging youngsters to follow her lead and enter this year's Hula O Na Keiki contest Oct. 17 & 18 at the Kaanapali Beach Hotel. For info, call Lori Sablas at 1-808-667-0217 ...
FROM dancing to modeling: Melissa Novikoff of Honolulu was one of 10 U.S. models chosen from 35,000 applicants in the Elite Model Look competition last week at the Fashion Cafe in New York. She, like Cindy Crawford, Stephanie Seymour, Frederique van der Wal, Tatjana Patiz and Karen Mulder in previous years, will go on to the international finals in Nice, France, and be featured on E! Entertainment Television's 1997 "Making of a Supermodel" show late next month ...
WHEREVER photog Russell Tanoue goes, women are usually right there. First he spent five days on Kauai shooting beautiful new recording artist Malia Gibson and 16 girls of Island Faces Modeling Agency. He had to turn down an opportunity in L.A. with the Kamaaina Pictures film project "Beyond Paradise," slated for unveiling at the Hawaii International Film Festival. But Tanoue is hoping to get together with lifelong friend Kelly Hu, the former Miss Teen USA who is now acting in "Nash Bridges," when he goes to San Francisco for an upcoming project. Meanwhile, he's just back from shooting international recording artists Anita Sarawak and Mario Lazar in Las Vegas in 103 degree temperatures. So Tanoue is not one to complain about the heat we've been having here of late ... Lens captive
SPEAKING of Miss Teen USA, the current New Woman magazine has photos of work done by Honolulu cosmetic dentist Dr. Wynn Okuda, who helped enhance the smile of this year's second runner-up in the Miss Teen USA contest, Mahana Walter, as he did with Miss Universe Brook Mahealani Lee ...
YOU hear a lot about self-defense workshops for women these days, but Professor Wayne Tanna at UH is doing a different sort of workshop aimed at women -- it deals with financial self-defense. The free workshop will be Sept. 7 from 4-6 p.m. at Henry Hall and is aimed at providing answers to investment questions with women in mind ...
SATURDAY is the day when that dedicated group of loonies known as HURT, short for (and descriptive of) the Hawaiian Ultra Running Team, does the Tantalus Tropical Trek. This is the race's sixth year and stepping down (so to speak) as race director this year is Randy Havre, who's handed his duties to Millie Schatz. Millie for years has helped Hawaiian Open director Chester Kahapea count "shots" at Waialae, but the "shots" these trail runners will be putting down when resting their tired feet after the race will be of a more liquid variety. It's fitting a woman is taking over the Tantalus Trek, since over 40 per cent of the entrants are female, the highest percentage of women in any race -- except, of course, the Women's 10K run ... The big HURT
Contact Dave by e-mail: donnelly@kestrok.com.